Caleb 51 – Revelation

They took Zachariah away. He shuffled out looking every day of his one hundred and eighty years old.

I sighed sadly. I’d thought it would feel good to finally get my revenge, to put that old man in his place, but it didn’t. I just felt like a bully in the playground. I’d picked on someone far weaker than me, and they had had no defence.

“Thank you everyone,” said Judge Roder. “If you would all please wait outside…”

I turned to leave.

“Mr. Stott.” It was the judge. “I’d like a moment of your time please.”

I looked at Maggie, eyebrow raised, but she shrugged.

Dean gave me a reassuring pat on my shoulder.

“I’ll wait outside,” he said.

It took a few moments to clear the room. When the door closed behind the last person to leave, I was left standing in front of the judge’s desk. Melissa, I noticed, was still at her post.

“Please sit,” The judge said indicating the seat that Zachariah had previously occupied. I sat.

“You don’t seem satisfied with the outcome,” she said after a moment. I grimaced.

“I’m not,” I said, “but not for the reason you might think.”

She raised an eyebrow.

“I feel…” I began not knowing how to put it into words. “I don’t know. He was dangerous, sure, and it needed to be done. I get all that. So then why do I feel so guilty about having done it?”

“Because you’re a good man,” Melissa had spoken. “And good men don’t like hurting others, no matter how justified it is, and no matter how much they may deserve it.”

I looked at the judge.

“She’s right,” said the judge. “I’ve been watching you, Caleb. I’ve seen all the reports of pretty much everything you have done since discovering your power. You’ve made mistakes but let he who is without sin and all that.”

“You have proven time and time again that, when it matters, you make the right choices. Yes, you may have bought a few beers underage using your power…”

My eyes widened and she smiled.

“The Eversons did watch you pretty closely,” she said, “but each time you were really tested, you chose right. You did the right thing. Even today. What you did was the right thing, and the fact that doing it disturbs you makes me even more confident in your ability to make those choices.

“There were others,” she said, “in the room in whom I do not have the same confidence. Some of whom are or may, in the future, be in positions of authority over you. I want you to know that if you are ever in a position where you question an order you receive, or where you don’t believe that what you are being ordered to do is the right thing, you can call me.

“Too many times the ‘I was just obeying orders!’ defence is offered in trials of the military and of law enforcement, and it is rarely successful. We aren’t recruiting robots into our organizations. We want people with the capacity and capability to think for themselves. Remember, also, that the oath is not to the bureau or to your commander, not even to POTUS himself; you have sworn an oath, and will be swearing it again, to the constitution. If ever you feel an order you have been given is not lawful, or more fundamentally violates your oath, then use your judgement and call me.”

She picked a card from a holder on her desk and handed it to me.

“You do realize I will tell both Dianna and Maggie about this?” I asked. She grinned at me.

“As I said,” she maintained, “you make the right choices. Both of them will immediately think I was referring to them. It will keep them on their toes, and honest.”

“It’s nice to have uses,” I said, almost sarcastically but with an air of bitterness.

She regarded me impassively for a moment.

“You need to grow up, Caleb,” she said to me, not unkindly. “We are all tools for someone. You think that any boss cares individually for all their employees, for all the employees of their suppliers, or all the employees of their distribution network? Do they care about the welfare of their mailman, the cable guy, or the guy that cuts their lawn?

“We are all parts of a machine. We are tools for someone else to use. That is your professional life, and that’s what you get paid for. And before you say you’re not ‘in’ the bureau yet, ask yourself ‘who is putting three thousand dollars a month into your account?’

“If we were to be personally involved then that would be different. I’m sure that your fiancées see you in a completely different light. But to me, everyone that works for me, and by several degrees of separation that includes you, is a tool for me to use and those tools allow me to do my job.

“Personally, I like to look after my tools, and I try and treat them well and with respect. I try not to shove the fact that I’m only using them down their throat at every opportunity but sometimes, like now, it has to be pointed out to them.

“Don’t confuse personal and professional relationships. Your problem with Maggie and Dianna is that they are both family too. So, the lines blur. Separate out the two in your mind. Don’t think of ADD Forbes as Maggie, or as Grandma; think of her as, and address her as, ADD Forbes or Ma’am. Same with Dianna. She’s Special Agent Everson or Ma’am.

“Then, when you clock out, Maggie and Dianna can truly be your family without all of the workplace formality and encumbrances. They are different people, Caleb. They need to be to do their jobs. They need it too. At some point they are probably going to have to order you into harms way. How much more difficult is that going to be for them if you are Caleb the grandson and not Agent Stott?

“Separate it out.”

I looked at Melissa. She wasn’t looking at me, but at her hands which were resting in her lap.

“Her too,” said the Judge.

I nodded. It made sense, and she was right.

“Now,” she said. “I have one final favour to ask of you, and then you’re free to go.”

I cocked my head to one side.

“Melissa here, like two of your fiancées, has endometriosis,” she said. “That means that for almost one week out of four she is out of action, and I have to put up with a random power user. It’s really irritating to have to do this. So I’d like, if you would be willing, for you to take care of her. Then she can get back to doing her job.”

I quirked a smile at the judge. She’d couched that request in such a way as to make it look like the only reason she wanted Melissa helped, was to give her, the judge, an uninterrupted service she needed in the office. Her mind, and aura, told a different story.

“Did you forget I’m an Empath too?” I asked. The judge looked puzzled and looked at Melissa who was smiling gently.

“What does that mean?” asked the judge.

“It means,” said Melissa, “that he can read your aura, and knows that you are not the uncaring selfish old battle-axe that you pretend to be.”

The judge glared at me for a moment.

“Hey,” I said holding my hands up. “I didn’t say old.”

“Just get on with it,” growled the judge glaring at us both.

I looked at Melissa. “May I?” I asked, and she nodded.

It was the work of moments to set the correct things in motion. It would take about a week for her body to fully absorb the instructions I’d given it, but it would, and by the time she was due again, it would all be resolved.

“Okay,” I said.

Melissa looked a little shocked. “Is that it?” she asked.

I nodded. “All done,” I said. “As with the judge it will take about a week for things to sort themselves out, but after that you should be all good.”

Melissa smiled at me. “Thank you,” she said.

“Any time,” I replied.

I looked back at the judge and saw our meeting was over. I stood.

“Thank you for your time,” I said. She nodded at me. I smiled at Melissa.

“What did she want?” asked Maggie almost before the door to the judge’s chambers had closed behind me.

“To give me her card,” I said, “and to tell me that if you ever gave me an order I thought was unconstitutional, I was to call her.”

Maggie’s eyebrows went up. “Did she now?”

“She didn’t mention you specifically,” I said. “She said anyone.”

Dianna looked at me. “And will you?” she asked.

“Like a shot,” I said grinning at the pair of them while tucking the judge’s card into my wallet.

Dianna chuckled, “Well, that’s us told.”

“I doubt I’ll ever need it,” I said, my face becoming serious. “I trust you both to always do the right thing.”

“Keep the card in your wallet,” said Maggie, “and never be afraid to use it.”

We walked back to the car. “What’s your plan for the rest of the break?” Maggie asked as we set off, again with Dianna driving.

“We were going up to Dean’s place for a couple of weeks,” I said. “Then we were going to spend a few days at my parents. As Dean said, I need to mend some fences there but there really isn’t the room for us to stay for long.”

“So. . .you’re coming back the weekend before you are due back in school?” she asked.

“Yes,” I said. “Probably on that Saturday. That will give us the Sunday to prepare to start classes. That reminds me, our grades should be published today. We can check them when we get home.”

“I need to have a chat to you about your joining the bureau,” said Maggie. “You said that you might have changed your mind?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I guess there is so much I want to do, so many things I could do. I always wanted to be in law enforcement and the FBI was definitely on my radar. I guess I’m just like any other senior in college.  I’m trying to figure out the next steps. I do want to join, but there are other things I’m interested in too. But then again, I have a long working life ahead of me and I don’t necessarily need to spend my entire working life as a fed. Isn’t there compulsory retirement?”

“We’re exempted,” Dianna said. “For obvious reasons.”

“Good to know,” I said.

“I wanted you to know,” said Maggie, “that if you do decide that the FBI isn’t for you, I won’t hold it against you. Things have moved so far past where we were just a year ago. I got to know you, and…well…just…you don’t need to join if you don’t want.”

“I do want,” I said gently. “But I might not want to make it my whole career. Maybe only the first forty years or so?”

Dean chuckled. “You’ll need to take some time off then to come look after Cheryl and me.”

“I doubt it will be necessary,” I said, “but you know we would.”

“I know son,” he said. “I know.”

Dianna and Maggie declined our invitation into the house for something to eat and took off almost as soon as we closed the doors of the SUV. Mary and Amanda were standing at the open door. They looked at me a question in their eyes.

“It’s done,” I said. “Zacharia no longer has any powers.”

Both twins sighed in apparent relief.

“What about Heath?” they asked.

“He has some punishment coming,” I said, “but he’ll survive it intact. I actually have some sympathy for him given his life growing up, but hopefully he’ll learn.”

“I made some lunch,” said Ness, “before we head back.”

We ate, and then headed back to the airport where Gerry was waiting with the jet.

I declined his invitation to ride on the flight deck with him. I was still out of sorts from this morning and wanted to think things through.

Prior to yesterday, if I’d been told I’d be the downfall of the Everson Council, and be able to strip Zacharia Everson of his power, I’d probably have been ecstatic. They were the evil Eversons who had kept my family under their jackboot for generations. When I’d discovered the binding oath, I had been so incensed that I would have been capable of just about anything. But, as it happens, my rage eased, reason reasserted itself, and I realized that, for all the anger and frustration I felt, I kind of understood how we had come to be in this position. I didn’t for a second excuse it, but I could see how they, particularly someone as old as Zacharia, could rationalize to themselves why they should continue. For him, the past was still present.

I’d celebrated bringing the Everson Council down, but what had I actually achieved? I’d simply taken the Everson family off the board for a time while they reorganized. From what Matilda had said there were probably not that many candidates for the council in their family. Could I do something about that? Could I speak to Abuela Gonzales and explain that it was all Zacharia, and that they should allow the rest of the council to continue?

If I did that, though, I’d be taking responsibility for them, not only for their future conduct, but more to the point accepting their past conduct. It’s easy to scapegoat Zacharia, but the remaining two did have the opportunity to change things – they could have stood up to him. They could have worked together, but they were too frightened, too cowardly, and allowed him to browbeat them into actions that they knew to be illegal, immoral, and just plain wrong.

No. They didn’t get a pass. They were as responsible as he was. Maybe we could build a relationship with them over time, maybe not. But I wasn’t going to speak for them to Abuela Gonzales or anyone else.

This train of thought had my anger rising again and I took a breath, centring myself.

I felt Mary’s hand on my arm. I looked at her and smiled. All the girls were watching me, a little concern in their eyes, but none had tried to talk to me. I guess they’d sensed that I needed to work this out for myself.

The spike of anger reminded me of the first time that I’d made the journey to the Ranch. Yes, we’d been driving then, not flying, but the rage I’d felt had been similar. Only then I’d been mad at Maggie and the FBI – for what? Some dumb transgressions that I shouldn’t have gotten all bent out of shape about. Something about an illusion where my girls had lied to me – or withheld information. That was it. Jesus, how much of a prick was I back then? How much of a prick was I now?

Speaking of being a prick, what the hell had I done to my parents?

I’d always gotten along with my parents as I grew up. My father never once raised his hand to me, and any punishment required was left to my mother. That’s not to say that she was any freer with her fists either. Neither of them had ever hit me. My mother, though, could guilt people for America.

Strange that, since I’d come into my powers, she hadn’t tried to do that to me. Maybe she was the one feeling the guilt. As she should….

Or should she?

It had been said from the beginning that they had had no choice in the way my upbringing was handled. The rules, set by the Eversons, and the advice from the Matriarch of their line determined their actions. I’d thought that they’d sided with those people against me, but once again I’d been wrong. My father had been bound. His oath had made sure that he was unable to disobey the rules of the council, even if he had considered them to be wrong.

Strangely I’d never asked him that question. Perhaps I should, or perhaps I should put it behind me and look forward rather than consistently looking back and finding stuff to complain about. There was no doubt I’d become a whiny little bitch, constantly feeling sorry for myself. Every time I met any kind of headwind I’d go off on some rant about how unfair everything was, how I didn’t ask for any of this, and how badly done to I was.

So lets tally my life up. Exactly how bad off was I?

I had four, count them FOUR, beautiful fiancées who literally worshipped me. I equally worshipped the ground they walked on. I felt the love from them, even now, through the connection. I’d not spoken to any of them since taking off and they’d respected my wish to have some me-time. Me-time. . .what a prick. What was so special about Me that I was entitled to go off in a sulk every time something unpleasant happened? Didn’t it happen to them too? Wasn’t the deposing of the Everson Council, the revelation of their sins, and the stripping of power of one of their most senior family members actually far MORE of a blow to the twins than it was to me?

All right, it had been me who had done the stripping, but that could be even worse for them. I had done it. I’d attacked their family and just assumed that they’d be fine with it. Because it was me, because it was just, because, because, because.

I’d  gotten sidetracked. I was tallying up how bad off I was. So, four beautiful fiancees. Mary and Amanda. Stunningly beautiful. Mary more considered, apparently more intelligent, but don’t let Amanda’s happy go lucky demeanour fool you – she’s not dumb. Then there’s Jules. Quirky, quick witted, and with more love to give than I’d ever have imagined a single person could. Finally, last but definitely not least, Ness. Fiery and fierce, but vulnerable too. I couldn’t imagine being without a single one of them. My heart ached at the mere thought of that possibility, and yet, here I was isolating myself from them again – with them mere inches away. What the fuck?

Anyway – still tallying. I had in-laws who could be my parents. I loved both of them fiercely and felt it reciprocated. And then I had my parents. Once again I realised how badly I’d treated them, but even so they still loved me. I felt it. I knew it. There was so much I needed to apologise for, to both of them really, but primarily to my mother. The snide comments, ignoring them, each jibe I’d directed at them played through my head, an aural testament to just how much of an asshole I’d been. What made it worse was that I could remember the righteous indignation I’d felt every time I’d delivered one of these barbs. It was like I was getting vengeance for being wronged when, in fact, all I had been doing was hurting them, insulting them, decrying them for something they had neither choice nor control over.

Then I had Josh and Louise. Louise, who had literally shown me what love was. And Josh, who’d not only allowed it, but encouraged it, and joined in, loving me with an intensity only second to that of his love for Louise. I had no idea how they did it, or why I deserved it, but it felt so good to be around them.

The same was becoming true of Dana and Gracie. It was embryonic, but I could feel the seeds growing within them. They would be another couple who’s love for each other would grow exponentially but even so, their love for us would be there growing with it, supporting it, nurturing it.

And Dianna. And Maggie and. . .there were so many people who I’d railed against. I won’t say that there was no justification for it but, with the benefit of hindsight, I could have, SHOULD have, done much better. I could think of several occasions where I’d lashed out at Dianna and Maggie for no other reason than they were there. That was evil, it was cruel, and it was not the man I wanted to be.

I had to do better.

So – since I was surrounded by all these people who loved me so much – there has to be a down side right? Something to even things out? Cosmic balance?

Well, it wasn’t my body. I was young, fitter than I’d ever been in my life – apparently going to live for three to four times my previous life expectancy, and I was practically immune to every disease. I could die but death would have to work fucking hard to get me.

Was there something I’d change about my body given a choice?

The thing is, I had the choice, and hadn’t changed a thing. That told me everything I needed to know.

So Mr. Cosmic Balance, what was I lacking in my life to balance out my perfect body and all the people who loved me?

Was I poor? Fuck no – I was richer than I had ever imagined being. I had over five million dollars in my bank account, and all of my fiancées were loaded also.

So where was it? What was the flaw in my otherwise perfect existence? There had to be one. There always was.

Then it came to me.

I was a dick!

Pure and simple. I was a spoiled brat with gross issues of entitlement. I went off into tantrums every time something didn’t go quite my way. And what was it this time that had sent me to the floor kicking my legs and screaming?

Zacharia Everson. I’d murdered Zacharia Everson.

That’s how it felt at least. I’d taken away everything that made that man who he was. What’s more, at the instant I had done it, I’d revelled in it. I’d marvelled at my own magnificence, as I’d taken away the only thing that he had left.

It was like I’d taken sweets from a toddler and that had made me feel like a real tough guy. I was disgusted with myself.

I felt the telltale thud as the undercarriage of the jet dropped and I knew that in a few minutes we’d be on the ground. And thirty minutes later, I would be arriving at what I had come to consider not a second home, but my primary home. Thinking of the ranch reminded me of a couple of other things I had forgotten to include in my tally. Blaze, a horse who had become a friend. When we were together there was a companionship that I’d seldom felt with most humans I’d dealt with in my life, all of the above mentioned people excepted. And then very last but definitely by no means least Terra, the matriarch of the Steadman pack. She wasn’t the oldest but she was by far the most intelligent dog I’d ever encountered, and she showed a remarkable capacity to understand, to know what was needed, and to deliver it with an almost motherly love.

The plane had landed and we taxied to the hangar. I heard the engines spool down, and I stood, and followed the girls onto the apron.

Mary took my hand, “Are you okay?” she aside. I smiled at her.

“Yes,” I said. “I am.” I stretched my arms out and gathered all my girls up pulling them into a hug and surrounding them with my power, pushing love, gratitude, and apology.

“I’m perfect,” I said holding them all to me. “Thank you.”

+++++

We spent the next two weeks at the ranch. Josh and Louise had a great time, although Josh found out the hard way just how much work farming was. He was a city boy and had never really been out into the country. I doubt he’d come face to face with a real cow before.

We flew back home on the Friday night, intending to stay over at the house, and then drive to my parents the next morning. We had dinner with Gracie and Dana who seemed closer than ever, and then we went bowling. Gracie hadn’t been with us so far and we had fun.

The two boys that Mary and Amanda had gone home with that time were at the alley but they barely looked in our direction for the whole night. Nor were we bothered by any other guys. I bowled like a one-legged, left-handed blindman. I came dead last. Jules, of course, won the night with Gracie snapping at her heels.

I woke up the next morning at my usual time and extricated myself from my girls. I’d been out on the deck training for about an hour when Dana came out to join me.

“Sorry,” I said. “Did I wake you?”

She shook her head.

“I wanted to talk to you,” she said. I sighed as I wasn’t really ready to do this now. But would there ever be a time when I would be ready? Perhaps now was a good time.

“About?” I asked.

“About me and Gracie,” she said, “and about Josh and Louise – and you and Gracie and you and me.”

“That’s a lot to talk about,” I said. “Let’s go inside.”

We walked into the kitchen where I made us coffee, and then we took them through to the living room.

“I see what Josh and Louise have,” she said, “and I want that, with Gracie.”

I smiled at her. “I would too,” I said. “The love between those two is profound. I hope you and Gracie can find that together.”

“That’s not what I mean,” she said, “but it’s part of it.”

I frowned at her slightly. “What then?”

“Josh and Louise have each other,” she said. “But then they also have you and the girls too, although Josh tells me that Jules and Ness don’t play with him. Something about yours being the only cock they want?”

I nodded “That about sums it up,” I said.

“I want that too,” she said.

“My cock?” I asked a little surprised.

“No,” she said laughing, “well, yes actually, but that’s not what I was talking about. I meant I want to be included. You have a core family with you and the girls, and you don’t want to extend that. I get that. But you also have an extended family which includes Josh and Louise. And I’d like it to include me and Gracie too.”

“And what does Gracie want?” I asked.

“She wants the same thing,” said a voice from the doorway. I looked around and Gracie was standing leaning against the door jamb.

I regarded the pair of them. I got where they were coming from, but this felt contrived, forced. Josh and Louise had joined us organically. They had lived with us, become part of our family a bit at a time. They hadn’t come to ask, filled in an application form, or auditioned.

“What Josh and Louise have with each other,” I said, “is something that has grown over the years they have been together. I’ve known them both since I started at PSU and they were always right for each other. I hope that you can find the same kind of love together as they have.

“But…” started Dana but I held my hand up.

“What Josh and Louise have with us,” I continued, “with me, is something that evolved. I lived with Josh since I started at PSU. Then they both moved in here and we grew closer and closer together. What happened at my party was the culmination of that.

“I’m not saying that if you move in that we will not develop the same kind of relationship, but I am saying that it’s not as simple as asking to join. This isn’t a club, a cult, a cabal or any of the other c’s that you might want to label it. Before you came along it was two families, seven people living together and slowly getting closer.

“Will that happen with you two? Maybe, maybe not. You are both beautiful and interesting people. Just over a year ago I told both Josh and Louise that I did not love them, individually, but together there was something about them as a couple that I did love.

“With you two it’s different. I actually think it would be very easy for me to grow to love either or both of you. And seeing you two together makes me so happy.

“So, while I’m not saying ‘no,’” I concluded, “I can’t say ‘yes’ either. Let’s see what happens. We’ve got a year of school left. Who knows what is going to happen in that time.”

“So can I move in?” asked Dana.

I sighed.

“After we talk,” I said. “We’ll be back next Saturday latest. I promise we’ll talk then.”

“It doesn’t really give me much time to plan,” complained Dana. “School starts the following Monday. When am I going to be able go to the housing office and sort things out?”

I considered this. She was right. I needed to give her an answer before we left.

It was time for ‘the talk.’

“Let’s get some breakfast.” I said “The others will be up soon. Then we’ll talk.”

An hour later we were all sitting in the kitchen.

To my surprise Gracie separated herself from Dana and came to sit by me, facing the younger girl. Dana looked surprised, and a little scared, all of a sudden.

“Dana,” said Gracie, “you know what I do for a living.”

“You work for the FBI,” said Dana, “you’re an agent.”

“What Caleb and the girls are about to tell you,” Gracie said, “you can never repeat to anyone. If you do, you won’t be prosected or arrested, you will be discredited. There is a whole department of the FBI dedicated to keeping this secret, and the way they do it is to make anyone that tries the make the information public, look barking mad. In short, they destroy them. So, if you don’t think that you are capable of keeping the secret say so now, before Caleb says another word.”

Dana looked at me with real fear in her eyes now.

“Do I want to know?” she asked looking at me.

“If you want to move in here,” I said, “you have to know; the choice is yours.”

“You’re frightening her,” complained Louise going over and putting her arms around Dana.

“They’re making it sound scary,” she assured Dana. “I promise you it’s not. But secrecy is important you know?”

Dana looked at Louise, then at me.

“Okay,” she said.

“Just over a year ago,” I began, “On my twentieth birthday…”

I told her the tale. I told her how I had discovered my powers, and pretty much everything that had transpired since.

For the entire time I talked she sat silent, unmoving, and stared at me.

When I finished, she remained seated and said nothing.

Then she looked at Gracie.

“I wondered,” she said, “why there were no scars. You told me you’d been shot four times and yet your skin is flawless. They operated to save you and yet there’s not a mark. I wondered how that could be. But it’s all because of Caleb.”

“And Jeevan,” I said.

“The ethics class,” she went on, not heeding my interruption. “The ethics of having superpowers. You weren’t theorizing, you lived it, are living it. Those boys. You could have. . .broke his arm. . .why didn’t you?”

Gracie went and wrapped her in a hug. She was starting to hyperventilate.

I looked at Amanda and she rolled Relaxation, love, and trust over her. She was very obvious about it.

“WOW!” said Dana, looking at me. “What was that?”

“That was Amanda helping you to relax a little,” I said. “I told you Mary and Amanda have power too.”

“I need to think,” she said, as she stood up and headed for the door. “I’ll call you later,” she shot at Gracie. And then she was gone.

I sighed. “Well, that could have gone better.”

“You think she’ll be okay?” asked Jules. Gracie nodded.

“I’ve found that Dana needs time and space to process things,” she said. “She’ll come back with a million questions and want to know the ins and outs of every aspect of your power. You’ve been in ethics classes with her. You’re in for some interesting conversations.”

“Not me,” I said. “I’m off to my parents for the week. You’re up!!”

“Gee. . .thanks,” she said. “Can I, at least, tell her she can move in now?”

“Sure,” I said. “Although I think we need to remodel some. I’m thinking you guys need an ensuite. And looking at Jules’ workshop, your room, and the spare room, I’m thinking we could probably do it if we lost maybe four feet off each room.”

I looked at Jules. “That would be ok by me,” she said. “I don’t sleep in there anymore, and my bench is over on the other side of the room. More empty space just means more clutter space.”

“Ness?”

Ness looked puzzled. “What?”

“What do you think?”

“What’s it to me?” she asked.

“The spare room was going to be your private space,” I said, “just in case you needed somewhere to retreat.”

Her face cleared. “I’m not going to be spending any time in there,” she said, “so it won’t matter. Do whatever you need to do to make all of our lives more comfortable.”

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll start looking for a contractor when we come back. You and Dana can use the den while we remodel. We’ll have to figure out what to do about Jules’ workshop.”

“Let’s worry about that another time,” said Jules. “We need to get going.”

I nodded. “You going to be okay?” I asked Gracie.  She smiled.

“Peachy,” she said. “Thanks.”

The journey to my parents took slightly longer than usual due to traffic, so when we finally got there it was late in the afternoon and just heading into early evening. My mother came out of the house when she heard my truck pulling up in the driveway.

She smiled as we all piled out of the truck and took turns hugging her.

“You guys are going to have to store your gear in here,” she said taking us up to the room at the top of the stairs. . .the one where Dianna had stayed that fateful Saturday. I frowned. “How come?” I asked.

“We had to take most of the furniture out of your room to get the bed in,” she said.

I looked into what had been my room, to find they had replaced my old queen sized bed with what looked like a California King. It was still not as big as our bed at home but we’d all fit, as long as we didn’t mind getting cosy. . .and we seldom minded.

Since the room wasn’t really big enough for that bed there wasn’t a lot of extra floor space, hence needing to use the other room to store stuff and get dressed or undressed.

“What…?” I began on seeing the bed. It seemed completely ridiculous that they would do this, given that we had not been to the house since my last birthday over a year ago. Why would they spend the money?

“I was hoping,” said my mother a little wistfully, “that you might come visit a little more often if you knew you all had somewhere to sleep.”

I looked at her, and saw that she had tears in her eyes, and I realized once again just how badly I had treated my parents. I’d spent almost the entirety of the last year, since I came into my powers, being angry at them, accusing them of everything from neglect to child abuse, and trying my damndest to avoid them. In addition, they must have been able to see how close I had gotten to Cheryl and Dean and seeing them usurping my real parents in my heart.

I went and pulled my mother into a hug.

“I’m sorry mom,” I said.

She held onto me for a short while, sniffling into my shoulder, then straightened up.

“Come on down into the kitchen,” she said. “Dinner’s nearly ready. Your father should be back soon.”

“Where is he?” I asked. “Is he working on Saturdays now?”

“No,” she said, “he just had to run an errand. He should be back any minute.”

Just then, I heard the front door close and, a moment later, my father came into the kitchen. He smiled when he saw us all.

“Hey,” he said. “Welcome home.”

I smiled at him. “Thanks.”

Mary and Amanda, who were closest to him, stood and went to hug him. He seemed a little taken aback, but accepted the hugs. By the time the twins had finished, Ness and Jules had both stood and went over to him also. He seemed a little overwhelmed by the attention.

We all sat back down at the table and began to eat.

“So,” I began, “how are things with the council?”

“Coming along nicely,” he said. “We’ve had meetings with all of the family. Each have sworn an oath similar to yours.”

“That must have been interesting,” I replied. “Did Aunt Janine say what she’s decided to do about her power?”

“She’s already resigned from the bureau,” said my father. “She’s registered herself as a hypnotherapist, and she’s also taking a counselling course. I think you inspired her.”

“I’m glad,” I said. “Her husband seemed nice.”

“I’ve not seen him in a while,” he said. “I think he’s and architect or some-such. To be honest I think she’s the one in charge in that house.”

I grinned. “I suspect so,” I said. “What about other families?”

“Maggie is working on that.” he said. “We’re already on terms with the Wragge family; I think Maggie already knew Vince,  and we’re negotiating with the other families. The Eversons have put a new council together. Although Matilda isn’t on it I believe that she’s acting as an advisor. Ezra as far as I know has ‘retired’. I think he’s spending all of his time on his boat fishing these days.”

“Sounds like a good deal,” I said. “Who are the new council members?”

“Dianna, obviously,” said my mother. “Then there’s Matthias Everson, he’s a tax accountant, Heath’s great, great, grandfather, and the leader of the new council. Then there’s Judith Everson,  Matthias’ granddaughter and Heath’s aunt. She’s very young – in her mid-forties, I think. And there’s Maggie too.”

“Sounds like things are starting to get back to normal,” I said. “Are they talking to you yet?”

“Kind of,” he said. “They rescinded the old council’s ruling concerning not having anything to do with us, but lets just say that relations are ‘strained.’  They are improving though. Matilda is smoothing the waters.”

“Glad to hear it,” I said.

We finished up dinner, and helped clear up, before moving to the living room.

I sat looking at my father for a few moments.

“So, did Uncle John swear?” I asked nonchalantly.

My father’s reaction was visceral. I felt his hatred for his brother, but I didn’t understand it. Surely this was too extreme a reaction simply for a disagreement about the use of powers.

“Yes,” he said through gritted teeth, but didn’t say any more. I dropped the subject.

I looked at my mother and saw guilt, fear, remorse, and even a little frustration, in her aura.

Guilt? What did she have to feel guilty for?

Something was not adding up and I wanted to know what.

I looked at my father and saw his feelings of anger and betrayal. It was muted, as if it was an old wound that had kind of healed over, but he obviously still felt it.

Betrayal? That was interesting and concerning. Betrayal from my father and guilt from my mother? I was putting two and two together – was I coming up with the wrong answer? I was so tempted to just go digging and find out, but that would be the ultimate abuse. Yet there was something not right about this whole situation, and I had a feeling that it was important that I found out what it was. I just didn’t know how to go about it.

Later that night, in bed, I spoke to the girls about it.

“There’s something we’re not being told about what went on with Uncle John.” I said as we were settling in for the night.

“What do you mean?” asked Jules. Mary and Amanda had just looked at me. They must have seen what I did.

“When I asked my dad about Uncle John,” I said, “I saw anger and betrayal in his aura.”

“Okay,” said Ness, “but if your Uncle John was using his powers against your father’s principles, wouldn’t that hold true?”

“Possibly,” I said. “The thing that makes me think something more is going on is the guilt I saw in my mother’s aura.”

“Guilt?” asked Jules. “Why would she be guilty?”

“My question exactly,” I responded.

“There were other emotions there too,” said Amanda. “Fear and remorse.”

“But…” started Ness. Then her eyes widened. “You don’t think?” she didn’t finish the question but it was obvious what she was thinking, because it was what we were all thinking.

I sighed.

I needed to know more. Finding out would be both simplicity itself and also a massive intrusion into my parents’ lives. I decided to see what Maggie would tell me. I was sure that she would have known.

_Why didn’t you tell me that Mom and Uncle John had an affair? I sent to her.

The response came back almost instantaneously.

­_Because it all happened before you were born, and it was none of your business.

Before I was born my mother and John were lovers. Cogs started turning in my head. I was possibly the most powerful user ever to have come from our line, yet I had sprung from the loins of two parents who had virtually no power between them. John was much stronger than my father. He and my mother had had an affair before I was born. Was I the product of that affair?

Another probing question to Maggie.

­_Am I not entitled to know who my father is?

There was a much longer pause before she answered. I wondered if she was contacting my parents to confer, or was she just reluctant to answer.

_Talk to your mother.

Was the eventual reply. That, I believed, told me everything I needed to know. Well shit!

I slept very badly that night. Thoughts kept running through my head. Was my dad my biological father? What had happened between Uncle John and my mother? Did Uncle John use his powers to get my mother to sleep with him?

If that were the case, why was he not in prison or, at least, under some kind of censure? Or had he been and had served his sentence before I ever knew he existed? Or, more likely, was his ‘deal’ with the FBI what kept him out of trouble?

It was entirely possible I was barking up the wrong tree. I was certain that my mom and John had had some kind of affair, but was it a leap to assume that I was the product of that affair? My mother once told me that she had a tiny amount of Empathy from her family line. So as an Empath, did she need to ‘share’? How powerful an Empath did you need to be before the need to ‘share’ manifested itself? There were so many questions.

Also, did I really want to open up that can of worms? I was supposed to be here mending fences, not ripping them down and digging up the pasture at the same time.

I got out of bed at my usual time and contemplated what I should do. Should I go for a run, or just run through exercises in the yard? I opted to start with a run.

I was out for just over an hour and a half and arrived back at the house at about a quarter of six. I let myself in quietly and decided to go into the yard to warm down and run through some kata’s before the rest of the house woke up. My mother was already up and sitting in the kitchen when I walked in. She had a cup of coffee in front of her and there was another on the table opposite her.

She looked up at me as I entered and indicated the seat on the other side of the table.

“Caleb,” she said, “we need to talk.”

I wondered idly how many lives had been shattered by conversations that started with those four words. I wondered if mine was about to be the next.

I sat down opposite her and picked up my coffee. It was still hot. She must have been watching for me returning from my run. I wondered how long she’d been waiting. How long had she been awake?

“Maggie texted me last night,” she said.

I nodded. That made sense. I must have surprised Maggie into revealing information that she wasn’t supposed to. She’d messaged my mother for damage limitation.

“I guess you have questions?” she asked.

“Is John my biological father?” I asked, going straight for the kill. There was no point in beating around the bush. This was what I wanted to know, and once that was determined I would decide what to do next.

“I don’t know,” she said. “It’s possible, but we never had a DNA test done.”

“Did he use his powers on you?” The next most important question in my mind.

My mother glanced behind me, apparently checking to see where my father was. I wondered about that, but then drew my own conclusions. John might not have used his powers, but she might have used that as an excuse to my father, hence why my father was so mad with John and yet hadn’t divorced her.

She shook her head. She was reluctant to voice the truth.

“But you told dad that he did?” I asked.

She nodded. Tears starting to trickle down her cheeks.

I sat back in my chair and sighed.

“Why?” I asked. Not why did she tell my dad that John had used his powers on her, that was obvious. What I wanted to know was why she’d had an affair with my dad’s brother in the first place.

She seemed to understand the question. She shrugged a little but knew I wouldn’t be satisfied with that as an answer.

“I have asked myself that question a million times over the last twenty years,” she started. “We’d just moved in here, your father was working every daylight hour, and often late into the evenings too. He was trying to get his business off the ground. He never refused a call, went out in all weather, and when he came home he was so tired it was all he could do to clean himself up enough to eat and sleep before he went out again.

“I was a young woman, ostensibly living alone with very little to do. I was bored. I decided I would get a job, and your Uncle John offered me a position in his company. I’d work for him.

“I won’t go into details, but suffice it to say that working for him meant that I spent a lot of time where it was just him and me, and… well… things happened.

“Eventually your dad caught us together. He attacked your uncle, but since John has powers and your dad doesn’t. He never really posed any danger to John. John simply Compelled him to back down, and then got dressed and left.

“Your dad went to Maggie, to the council, telling them that John had used Compulsion to rape me. They said that they would investigate, but nothing came of their investigation. Your dad assumed that this was because John and his company were already working for the FBI thus the small matter of abuse of powers was overlooked. He was furious, with Maggie, with Dianna, but strangely, at the time, not with the council. He accepted their verdict. We now know why. The binding oath prevented him from arguing further.

“A few weeks later I found out that I was pregnant with you. Since I’d slept with both your dad and John, I had no idea who the father was. I debated for a long time just terminating the pregnancy just to be sure but in the end, I couldn’t do it. Eight months later, you were born and there’s not a day goes by that I don’t thank whatever providence that convinced me to go through with the pregnancy.

“You were, are, perfect. You are the best and most beautiful thing from my life, and I feel ashamed every day that I even considered not having you.

“Your dad and I discussed having a paternity test. DNA tests weren’t available back then or, at least if they were, they were not as accessible. We decided that we’d be better off not knowing, and your dad loved you as his son no matter what. He loves you, Caleb. I know that you have doubts, have issues, with what happened in your life, but never doubt that.”

“And all this time,” I said, “you lied to him; you are still lying to him?”

Her eyes widened. “Caleb you don’t know…”

“Don’t I?” I asked. “Don’t I know what it feels like to be lied to my entire life? That’s somewhat mitigated by the binding oath, or at least it is for Dad. What oath is stopping you now from telling the truth? Even after all this time, you are still lying to him.

“You told me you’re an Empath, albeit a very weak one. Do you have an Empath’s need to share? Is that the drive? Are you still, even now, cheating on him?”

The slap, when it came, was fast and hard. Sadly for her, not fast enough. I caught her wrist before it could connect.

“Is that a yes?” I asked. She snatched her hand back, glaring at me.

“How dare you,” she said snarling. “You have no right to speak to me like that.”

“Speak to you like what?” I asked. “I asked you a question, well two questions actually. Are you enough of an Empath to need to share, and are you still cheating on Dad. They’re not mutually exclusive.

“I cheated with one person,” she said. “More than twenty years ago, and there’s not a day goes by that…”

“You don’t lie about it to him,” I interrupted, finishing her sentence.

Her shoulders slumped and she rested her head in her hands.

“It must be so nice,” she said wearily, “being so perfect. Never doing anything wrong, always being right. That horse that Dean gave you is so tall, and you seem to spend a lot of time up there, even when you’re not at the ranch.”

It took me a second to get that.

I sighed, sitting back in my chair.

This was a shitstorm, and I had no idea what to do next.

“I think we’d better get our gear together and head back,” I said finally.

“What?” asked my mother surprised. “Why?”

“Because,” I said, “I grew up being taught that lying was bad. That cheating was bad. I’ve been told by numerous people that I turned out well because of my upbringing. Well, apparently that was yet another lie that I was told for my entire life.”

“It’s never that simple,” my father’s voice came from behind me. I jumped a little. I’d been so fixated on my mother I hadn’t noticed him coming in. I wondered how long he’d been there, what he’d heard.

“Isn’t it?” I asked.

He came and sat beside me, turning his chair to face me.

“No, son,” he said gently, “it’s not. You love your girls. . .all of them. I can see it in your eyes every time you look in any of their directions. You would do anything to make them happy, to make them feel that love. Yes?”

“Of course,” I said.

“I love your mother,” he said, “in exactly the same way. I knew that John didn’t Compel her, I also knew that her power as an Empath wasn’t strong enough to require her to share. She, like a million other bored brides with husbands that were too busy to pay them the proper amount of attention, got her head turned  by an opportunist. She was preyed on by a leech, a parasite. What made it worse was that that parasite was my very own brother who could have had almost any woman he wanted. John, however, was always one who wanted what you had. No matter what it was, if you had something, he had to take it from you.

“I wasn’t going to let him take what I had. I couldn’t attack him directly, because of his power, but I went to Maggie and she told him to back off and stay away. He hadn’t abused his powers so there was no call for the Everson Council to get involved. Even if he had abused his powers, they wouldn’t have done anything to him since he was already in bed with the FBI. They needed him in that position.

“I let your mother believe that I believed he had Compelled her. It was so much easier for her to accept that I could forgive her if she thought that I thought she’d had no choice. She had a choice, Caleb, a free choice, and she chose wrong. But who of us hasn’t made bad decisions in their life? Even you, young as you are, must realize that. You seem to have spent a good amount of the last year apologizing to someone or other.

“Circumstances lead us to where we are, Caleb. I chose to stay with your mother. I could have left, played the betrayed husband, but what would that have achieved other than getting my own heart broken? I loved, still love, your mother with all my heart. I couldn’t do that to her, or to myself.

“When I first held you, after you were born, I knew. I could feel it in my power that you were John’s baby. Yet as I looked into your eyes, staring back at me with an age and a wisdom that no newborn should possess, I also knew that you were my son. I knew that I would love you no matter who your biological father was. I did, and I do.

“I know I, we, made mistakes. For that I am begging for your forgiveness. I already said to you once that you needed to forgive your mother, and you do. She is an innocent in what happened to you. She’s not an innocent in what happened to me, but I have forgiven her. The guilty party here is the one who, has once again, walked away without a scratch. John.”

I looked from my dad to my mother. She was sitting wide eyed, her cheeks wet with tears. His revelation that he’d known all along had left her reeling.

“You have to make a decision, son,” he said after a moment. “You now know the truth, the whole truth. Some of it you deserve to feel aggrieved about. Some of it you don’t. What happened between John and your mother all those years ago, even before you were born, is none of your business. That is between her and I. I’ve made my peace with it and you have no cause to interfere in that.

“You had a father, me. I took on that responsibility and in some ways failed you. But John would have failed you in exactly the same way. He was subject to the same oath as I was. In all other respects, I did the best I could by you and I doubt that John could, or would, have done any better. He still isn’t married, whores around, and thinks only of himself. Even now I wouldn’t put any child into his care.”

“Did he know?” I asked.

“I think so,” he replied. “He never directly said it but, in the few times I have seen him since, the smug look he’d get on his face when he saw you with me, told me that he was relishing the sensation. In his mind he won. He cuckolded me and I was bringing up his child.

“I never saw it like that. You were, are, and always will be, my son.”

I looked at my mother, still sitting looking ‘tharn’. That’s the only word that springs to mind to describe her. Richard Adams, in his book “Watership Down”, defines ‘tharn’ as the instinctive freeze in a moment of a rabbit’s terror. The deer in the headlights look. I could see in her aura her confusion and fear. There was also a tinge of relief. A secret that had been weighing her down for over twenty years was now gone. She just didn’t know what to do next.

My father took the initiative.

Standing up, and patting me on my shoulder as he passed me, he walked around the table and knelt by my mother’s side.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I should have told you. Can you forgive me?”

“C-can I…?” she began, and then burst into tears throwing her arms around his neck. Sobbing into his chest.

Just then my phone beeped.

­_Maggie just told me that you have finally been told the truth. I’m in town. I’m coming over to see you. - John.

I gritted my teeth.

“Is it safe to come in?” sent Ness.

I sent a response in the affirmative and the girls entered the kitchen. Ness and I started to make breakfast. My parents just sat holding each other. When breakfast was ready we placed plates in front of the pair of them.

My mother looked up.

“I…” she said. I shook my head.

“Dad was right,” I said. “It’s between you and him. I had no business getting involved. There is one person I want words with though.”

There was a knock on the front door.

My father and mother both looked in the direction of the door. I went to answer it, my father following behind a few paces, my mother for some reason followed too.

I opened the door. John stood there, A look of concern on his face.

“Caleb,” he began. “We need to talk.”

I heard my father draw breath ready to say something but he didn’t have a chance. I stepped forward and, with every mote of strength I could muster, drove my knee up into John’s balls. I hit him so hard I lifted him clean off his feet.

His eyes bulged and let out a pitiful squeak as the pain of my strike overwhelmed his ability to even breathe.

He dropped to his knees. I resisted the urge to follow up but instead leaned forward.

“Stay away from my family,” I said. “And remember who I am and what I can do. An assault charge will really piss me off. Do you want to risk that?”

Turning, I slammed the door leaving him curled up gasping for breath on the doorstep.

Even in my wrath, my conscience forced me to check that I hadn’t done him permanent damage. I had. I’d ruptured one of his testicles. I expended some energy fixing that as well as making sure that he wouldn’t be left with any lasting injury. I did nothing to relieve his pain though.

I walked back into the kitchen, past my parents who were both standing dumbfounded in the hallway, and sat down to continue eating my breakfast. I was hungry having expended a chunk of power to heal that monster. I looked at Ness, and she grinned at me, and piled more bacon onto my plate.

My parents came and sat back at the table. My mother just stared at me. My father sat with his jaw clenched tight and his face getting red. At first I thought he was enraged and about to explode in anger at what I’d done. Then I saw his aura, and realized he was doing his damndest not to laugh.

Ness looked at my father, then at me.

“I take it you didn’t want the ‘Watchtower’ then?” she asked, eyes wide with innocence.

That was too much for my father and his resolve collapsed. He let out a bellow of laughter causing my mother to jump. It was some time before he could bring himself back under control. All the time he was laughing my mother watched him, at first in shock, but after a few minutes I could see that she was being affected by his mirth and her mouth quirked up at the corners. All of my girls were chuckling but trying not to be too obvious about it.

I’d pulled Ness into a hug and was laughing into her hair.

It took us some time to settle down. Nobody went to the door to see if he was alright.

When he finally stopped laughing my father looked at me, tried to speak, and began to chuckle again.

Three times he tried before he managed to control himself.

“Caleb,” he said gravely. A tremor still in his voice. “That was very wrong. I’m d-disappointed in you.”

I tried to look contrite, having a hard time suppressing my grin. “Sorry dad,” I said.

“You two are a fucking pair!” said my mother in exasperation.

My father and I both stared at her, mouths agape. Then burst into a fresh fit of laughter. Neither of us had ever heard her swear before.

My father stood, pulled me to my feet and round the table where he pulled my mother up also. He then put his arms around the pair of us holding us both to him. “I love you both,” he said simply. We all stood, arms around each other, for a long time. The girls sat at the table and watched. It was subtle, but I felt Amanda flexing her power rolling love, and forgiveness, over the three of us. I looked over and caught her eye. She grinned at me unashamed. I shook my head ruefully.

That breakfast marked a clearing of the air between my parents and I. It was like someone had pressed a ‘reset’ button; my relationship with them was pretty much back to what it had been before my twentieth birthday.

We spent the rest of Sunday hanging around the house, my mother spending time with the girls and getting to know them. My father and I stayed well clear of that. He and I went out into the garage and started playing with his latest project.

He was always tinkering with something in the garage, and this time It was an old static engine that he’d bought at a farming fair. It was seized and rusty and hadn’t run in more years than I’d been alive, but he was determined to restore it.

He’d not had it long and was attempting to disassemble it. The bolts were proving difficult though and he’d had to leave it soaking in releasing agent. We tugged and pulled and twisted, finally getting all but one of the bolts out. He cursed as the head of the bolt rounded, having been so corroded that none of the wrenches, sockets, or other tools could get a grip on it.

“Damn,” he said. “We’re going to have to drill it out. I was hoping not to have to do that.”

I bit my lip for a second and then focused. After a moment the bolt began to turn and, less than thirty seconds later, it floated free from the engine and laid itself down on the bench beside where we were working.

My father looked at me, a half scowl on his face.

“You mean,” he said, “that you let me struggle for the last three hours with all those bolts and nearly an hour on that one alone, and you could have done that all along?”

I grinned at him. “You were having fun,” I said and got an oily rag to the face for my trouble.

We finally managed to get the engine completely stripped down, with me using my powers to help out here and there. We had just put the last piece into the solvent bath to clean them when my mother stuck her head in.

“You need to get cleaned up for dinner,” she said. “Ness is cooking and she says you have twenty minutes.”

My father looked at me.

“We’d best go,” I said. “You don’t want to be late to table when Ness cooks.”

He grinned at me, then grabbed my head and pretended to examine the top.

“What…?”

“Yep, there they are,” he confirmed, “not one, but four thumb prints.”

I grinned at him as I walked toward the kitchen door.

“I’m going to get cleaned up,” I said, “be tardy at your peril.”

I was showered and sitting at the table when Ness served dinner up. My father, who had stayed another few minutes in the garage, had yet to make it. He arrived a little red faced and slid into his seat Ness gave him one of her looks and he blushed a little.

“Sorry,” he said. “I just…”

Ness placed a plate in front of him then went and seated herself opposite. She didn’t say anything but just sat down.

He looked at me with real worry in his eyes. “Is she…?”

I grinned at him which caused him to look back at Ness who was also grinning. “You guys are so easy.” she said.

He laughed ruefully. “How do you manage four of them?” he asked me.

“I don’t,” I said. “They manage me.”

“Which is as it should be,” said my mother giving my father a look.

The rest of the week at my parents passed quickly. I went out with my father on a couple of his calls and helped out. I’d been doing this practically all my life and we worked well together. With that, and my power, we’d finished jobs much faster than usual and so were home earlier, giving us all more time together as a family.

Typically, my mother had brought out the family album.  She tried to embarrass me by showing all my baby pictures, particularly the ones that all mothers like to show their son’s girlfriends, ones of me, as a baby, naked. It kind of backfired on her, though, when she pointed out one of me on a changing mat, and Amanda remarked “He’s grown quite a bit since then.”

My mother blushed scarlet and hastily turned the page. I grinned at Amanda and gave her a mental high five.

The nights in the new bed were fun too. We’d tried to be quiet but the looks I got from my parents the following mornings told me we hadn’t always succeeded.

When it came time to leave, I was, surprisingly, sad to have to go. After that fateful breakfast I had enjoyed my visit, and enjoyed reconnecting with my parents. In some ways I was dreading returning to the house and the confrontation with Dana.

I had deliberately stayed out of touch with her and Gracie to give her time to assimilate what she had been told. Having said that, neither of them had reached out to me so I guessed we would see what we would see when we got back.

We set out early on Saturday morning, packing our gear into the bed of the truck before heading home. The journey was long and uneventful and we arrived back at the house just before lunchtime. I braced myself to meet whatever questions Dana had but was surprised to find the house deserted.

I mentally shrugged and set about unloading the truck while Ness started lunch.

We were just about finished with lunch when the front door opened and Gracie came in, alone. She looked at us and smiled sadly.

“Hey Gracie,” I said. “Where’s Dana?”

“Gone.” said Gracie.

“Gone?” I asked. “Gone where?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “After you left, I tried to contact her, went to the dorms and she wasn’t there. I haven’t seen or heard from her since.”

“Did you try and call?” I asked.

“Couple of times,” she said. “It went straight to voicemail. I left one message but she hasn’t returned it. That told me all I needed to know, so I’ve not pestered her. Maybe when she comes back to school…”

“What about her job?” I asked. “Wasn’t she interning at the courthouse?”

Gracie nodded. “I went there too. They haven’t seen her all week. She’s just gone.”

For some reason this made me mad. I could understand Dana not wanting anything to do with us, but she had professed serious feelings for Gracie. For her to walk out and dump the older woman without so much as a ‘goodbye’ rankled with me.

I picked up my phone and dialled. It went straight to voicemail. I didn’t bother to leave a message. Instead, I sent her a text.

­_I understand if you don’t want to talk to me, but at least drop Gracie a message. She is worried about you. We all are.

I pulled Gracie into a hug. “I’m so sorry,” I said. “I didn’t expect that we would end up chasing her away.”

“It’s not your fault,” Gracie said. “You can’t help who you are and she had to know if she was going to live here. We already established that with Dylan.”

I nodded.

I’d just started to clear up from lunch when Gracie’s phone pinged. She looked at it, her eyes lighting up.

“It’s from Dana,” she said. “She says she’ll be here in half an hour.”

I raised my eyebrows, but said nothing. We finished clearing up and settled into the living room to wait. It was slightly over the hour when Dana knocked on the door.

“We’ll go give you some space,” I said and the girls and I went out onto the deck. Almost immediately though Gracie and Dana came out. Dana looked terrible. It looked like she hadn’t slept for the entire week we’d been gone. Her face was pallid and drawn and her hair lank and lifeless.

“Dana?” I said moving to where she stood, Gracie still with her arm around her shoulder.

“My mother,” she said. “She’s dying.” She burst into tears, looking like this was something she’d been doing a lot of over the past week, and Gracie pulled her into a hug holding the smaller girl to her.

“Dana,” I said. “Tell me.”

It took her a good few minutes to get herself together, and then she told her tale.

“After I left you last week,” she began, “I went back to the dorm. I was overwhelmed. What you told me was so far outside of my experience I just didn’t know where to start. Then my father called. He said that my mother was in the hospital. She’d had a bleed on her brain. A  subarach- something. She was in the ICU and it wasn’t looking good.

“When I got to the hospital, the doctors spoke to us. They said she had an aneurysm, a weakness in the blood vessels, in her head. But it was in a very tricky place to get to. They could neither operate to remove it nor could they block it off. It hadn’t burst, but was leaking, causing swelling to her brain, and that was what had caused my mother to collapse.

“She’s still in the ICU. They’re keeping the swelling under control with medication, and she’s on a breathing machine, but they say that the weakness could give out at any time which would kill her instantly. So for the last week I’ve been sitting by her bed with my father.”

She turned to Gracie. “I’m so sorry,” she said to her. “When my father called I was so flustered I actually left my phone in my dorm room. By the time I’d realised I was already on my way and didn’t want to waste time coming back for it. My father said she was dying. I needed to get there. I didn’t know your number, otherwise I would have called, but it’s saved to my phone, which I didn’t have.”

“It’s fine,” said Gracie. “I was worried about you is all. I mean we kind of dropped a huge bomb on you and…”

“Where’s your mother now?” I asked.

“She’s in the ICU.”

“Let’s go,” I said to Gracie. “Now.”

“What?” asked Dana.

“We need to get there quickly,” I said.

“We’ll take my car,” said Gracie. “I have lights and sirens.”

I wasn’t surprised that none of the girls complained that they wanted to come. They, at least, understood. Dana, as yet, did not.

Gracie drove like a woman possessed, the siren wailing as she cut through traffic. The journey to the hospital that Dana’s mother was in would normally have taken around two hours. Less than seventy minutes later, we pulled into the parking lot.

I’d explained to Dana on the way. I’d told her about Healing as part of the great reveal, but she had been presented with so much information that it hadn’t registered with her.

Gracie pulled into an emergency vehicle bay. When a parking attendant came toward her to tell her she couldn’t park there, she flashed her badge. He backed off.

Dana knew the way to the ICU and we went straight there, not running exactly but not wasting any time either.

Dana’s mother was in a side room. There was a nurse sitting at a PC mounted on an arm to one side of the bed, and Dana’s father sitting in a chair on the other side of the bed. He looked up as we entered. His face screwed up in apparent anger. He’d insisted that Dana dress to her biology while she was around the hospital and seeing her dressed as she was now had made him angry. I didn’t have time to mess with him.

“Quiet,” I said and he sat back in his seat, his face going blank. Then he closed his eyes and slept.

Dana looked at me. “What did you…?”

“No time,” I said, imagining that the nurse would have no problems with us being there, would completely ignore us, and get on with her job.

With that all sorted I finally turned my attention to the woman in the bed. Dana’s mother.

It was surprising how alike the two were. Dana was the spitting image of her mother, younger obviously but the likeness was uncanny. I examined her and quickly found the problem. This was going to take some dealing with.

“Gracie,” I said. “Go find me something to eat. Lots of something. Chocolate bars, energy bars, energy drinks. Go!”.

Gracie left without a word as I began work.

First, I worked on the aneurysm itself, forcing the cells of the vessel walls to replicate to bind and seal the weakness. It was a delicate task. Too much too fast and the wall would burst, or I would block the tiny artery completely causing her mother to stroke out. While that was going on I also broke down all the little clots and bits of debris that were around the aneurysm and making sure that they would not float off and lodge elsewhere causing other damage. It takes no time at all to describe, but Gracie was back with the goods I had asked for, and I had used up nearly half my power before I was satisfied that the blood vessel was no longer in danger of rupturing. Aggravating the power loss was the fact that I was forcing things to happen much quicker than normal. In a non urgent situation I would have started the process and allowed the effect to happen over a few weeks, but there wasn’t time for that; this had to happen immediately and that meant I had to use an excessive amount of power.

I grabbed a bar from Gracie, unwrapped it, and ate it in three bites. Ugh, Coconut – not my favourite, but I wasn’t eating for pleasure.

Once I was sure that the blood vessel was strong enough, I started to look at the rest of her brain. It had swollen and, since there was no room for the swelling, the pressure on the brain was causing problems. A lot of the brain tissue was being starved of oxygen and, although it appeared that none of it had actually died yet, it wasn’t in good condition.

Gently I started to reduce the swelling. Reversing the body’s natural response to injury, moving fluid from cells back into blood vessels where it would be carried away and finally, filtered through the kidneys, and passed into the bag I could see hanging on the side of the bed.

Absently I chewed my way through everything that Gracie had brought trying to titrate my power usage against what I was taking in. It was a losing battle. Calories weren’t the only factor: I needed time to rest to replenish my power, but the calories were certainly slowing the power drain down. By the time I’d finished removing all the swelling from her brain, my power bar was in the red with only a couple of graduations left.

I sighed.

Suddenly Dana’s mother started to cough and gag on the tube she had in her throat connecting her to the breathing machine. The nurse acted instantly, going to her, talking to her, and reassuring her. She pressed the buzzer on the wall and a doctor, and two other nurses, came in. We stepped back against the wall to watch.

“What’s going on?” asked the doctor.

“She just woke up and started gagging on her tube,” said the nurse.

The doctor looked at the monitors and then at Dana’s mother, who was watching him out of wide frightened eyes. I could see she was doing her best not to cough or gag on the tube, and I helped out a little making her more comfortable.

“Take the tube out,” said the Doctor. “I have no idea what’s going on, but her numbers suddenly all look good. We need to get a repeat MRI angio stat, but having her coughing and gagging on the tube is not going to do her any favours. Her ICP is right down and her CPP looks good, otherwise I’d be sedating her.  

“I’ll go make the arrangements for the MRI.” He left the room followed by the other two nurses.

The remaining nurse went to the head of the bed, pulled a tube from the wall, and switched a device on. A hiss sounded and I realised that this was some kind of suction device. She tucked the end of it under the woman’s pillow for ease of access then took a syringe, did something to the tube, and then with the suction on standby spoke.

“Miriam,” she said. “I’m going to take that tube out. Try to relax and try not to cough if you can.”

Miriam nodded her understanding and, in the blink of an eye, the nurse withdrew the tube. Holding the suction in Miriam’s mouth ready to hoover up any spit or vomit. Fortunately, my suppressing her gag reflex meant that wouldn’t be the case.

Dana moved, going to her mothers side. “Mom?” she said. Miriam turned her head to face her daughter.

“Dana?” she said. She glanced worriedly at Dana’s father, who was still dozing in his chair. Then she seemed to take on a new resolve. She reached for her daughter and pulled her in for a hug. Dana sobbed into her shoulder.

“I thought we’d lost you,” she said.

“Now baby,” said her mother soothingly, “you know I’m tougher than that.”

I chose this moment to allow Dana’s father to wake. It took him a second to get his bearings. His first sight was of his daughter and, once again, his face screwed up.

“What have I…”

“Cedric…” snapped her mother. “Enough.”

Cedric’s eyes widened when he saw that his wife, whom moments ago had been on deaths door, awake and glaring at him.

“Miriam?” he said stunned.

“Yes,” she said. “For whatever reason, the good Lord saw fit not to take me today.”

My lip curled but I said nothing. Gracie noticed and grinned at me.

“But this has to stop,” she continued. “Dana is our daughter and you have to accept her for what she is. Doesn’t the good book preach love, tolerance, and forgiveness. Ephesians 4:2?  John 8:7? Matthew 7:12?

“She is your child. Psalms 127:3? Matthew 19:14?”

“But…” he said.

“But nothing. If you can’t look at her, and love her, for who she is, then I don’t know the man I married. You stand in the pulpit every week and preach love, forgiveness, tolerance, forbearance, and then the moment you step down you become, what? A bigot? A man who can’t even love his own offspring because of who they choose to be?

“She’s not hurting anyone, she’s working hard, and making something of her life. She will be helping many. What does it matter her choices in how she dresses or who she chooses to love.”

Miriam looked around the room then apparently seeing us for the first time.

“Hello?” she said.

“Mom,” said Dana, blushing as she drew Gracie forward, “this is Gracie, my girlfriend.”

Cedric looked puzzled and the opened his mouth to speak. A glare from Miriam silenced him.

“I’m very pleased to meet you,” said Miriam.

“Likewise,” said Gracie. “Why don’t Caleb and I leave you guys to it. We’ll be in the cafeteria. Caleb looks hungry.”

Miriam looked at me. “Caleb?” she said. “Faithful. I get the feeling we’ve met before.”

I shook my head. “I only came for moral support,” I said. “For Dana. She thought you were sicker than it turned out you were.”

“Thank you,” said Miriam, “for being a friend to her. She seemed not to have very many.”

“I’ve got a few more now,” said Dana looking at me with tears in her eyes.

I nudged Gracie and we left them to talk as a family. We headed toward the cafeteria.

“Gracie,” I said as we walked down the corridor.

“Hmm?” she said obviously deep in her own thoughts.

“For future reference,” I said, “I hate coconut.”